“I’ve loved space for as long as I can remember,” says MechE PhD student Palak Patel. She’s working on advanced materials that could transform human spaceflight: “My research fundamentally tries to figure out how to keep astronauts safe in space.”
Engineers have found that hidden “tacit knowledge” — know-how that we can’t easily explain — shows up in how we focus during tasks. Bringing this concealed knowledge to the surface, they say, could help enhance experts’ performance or train novices.
Over 10,000 Americans are waiting for a liver transplant. Engineers developed injectable “mini livers” that could take over the functions of a failing liver. The technology could offer an alternative to transplantation or provide support until a donor organ is available.
For years, Institute Professor Suzanne Berger has been a leading advocate for US industry. Now she’s co-directing MIT’s Initiative for New Manufacturing, a platform to help the country make more goods.
Mechanical engineers uncovered the physics behind a promising membrane material that removes bubbles from surfaces — a costly problem in many industries, “Our research allows engineers to build better membranes for their systems,” Kripa Varanasi says.
In a world without MIT, radar wouldn’t have been available to help win World War II. We might not have email, CT scans, time-release drugs, photolithography, or GPS. And we’d lose over 30,000 companies, employing millions of people. Can you imagine?
Since its founding, MIT has been key to helping American science and innovation lead the world. Discoveries that begin here generate jobs and power the economy — and what we create today builds a better tomorrow for all of us.